Minnesota Sept. 30, 2010

Well, I am skipping over some things I want to blog about that happened earlier but wanted to get this done while it is fresh on my mind.

We arrived in Wadena, MN yesterday.  We are here because Bob has a brother and sister-in-law, John and Jan, that live not far from here and Bob is seeing a dentist in Staples, where they live.

Wadena is a small town of around 5,000 people.  It has a cute downtown area…which we will visit in the next few days.  There is a community college here and they had a tornado that came through in June doing quite a bit of damage to the residential area.

I left the motorhome early this morning because a farmer’s market was advertised to start at 7:00 am at the train depot…well, the farmer’s were still asleep I guess as there was no one there.  I snapped this on the way.

We wanted to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River so we headed north today, driving through several small towns before arriving at Lake Itasca about 2 hours away.  We stopped at two city parks that offer RV parking. 

We went to Bemidji first and stopped to see the Paul Bunyan statue with his blue ox, Babe.   

Here’s Bob signing the visitor register at the Welcome Center…he had to borrow Paul’s pencil.

There is a lot of sculpture on the streets of Bemidji…this fish was stolen several years ago and the paper publicized the theft and the fact that the piece was worth $10,000 (yeah right).  The thief returned the piece and they have kept it in the Welcome Center since.  It is constructed out of old tools.

I got to see my first cranberry bush or tree or whatever.

Chicago has it cows and Bemidji has it beavers.

Bemidji is also know for its woolen mill called…are you ready…are you sure…The Bemidji Woolen Mill!  It was much smaller than I expected…it would have been neat to see all the ladies at work…where the heck were they?

They had a great store…but not much there for people that spend less than a month in cold weather. Interesting.

Finally we arrive at Lake Itasca.  They have had so much rain that the water was really up.  When we were here in 1991 or 1992 you could literally walk across the Mississippi.  It was just lovely today as we were here around 5:00 and there were only a few other visitors.  Hard to believe that the might Mississippi starts right here.  We have now visited the headwaters of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers.

I had to put a toe in…hey Lorraine North I know you would have.

The portion of water in the background is Lake Itasca and the water in the foreground is the start of the Mississippi. 

It was a special moment for Bob also…he has his phone glued to his ear!

And a good time was had by all.

Moving on.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The last 2 days have flown by…that’s because they were our days off.  We seem to stay on the road the whole time running everywhere but not getting much done.

We will be closing our campground on Sept. 13 but Bob and I are going to stay in the area for another week to 10 days so we have been checking out all of the campgrounds in the area.  I told Bob we had to have internet even if we can’t get one where our AT&T cell phones work.

The weather is starting to turn cooler…we are turning our small heaters on each morning when we get up and today it was jeans and sweatshirts…yippee…my kind of weather.  They tell me they have had snow as early as the middle of September up here.

We spent some time some time in Custer State Park yesterday.  We ran into some burros, mules, donkeys…we are not sure which.  They had no problem going right up to the cars.  Unfortunately some people were feeding them…right in front of the signs that said not to feed the animals…go figure.

This little guy was all legs and he was kicking up a storm.

    

We saw a few prairie dogs but were once again disappointed in the number of animals we saw throughout the park.                    

Today we took Buddy and Cissy to the beauty shop in Custer where they had a spa day.  We then met Dave and Betty in Keystone to ride the tram up the side of the hill.  We had tried to do this once before but it was raining buckets by the time we got there and they were closed.  Today they were closed again…the sign said they would be open for Labor Day.  It’s just not meant to be.  So, we had lunch at the local DQ and got to have a nice visit.

Right across the street from the DQ we saw this sign about the Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Another view of part of Keystone.

This evening we met Larry and Rosalie, friends that we had worked with at Adventureland in 2005, at the Alpine Inn in Hill City for dinner.  Also joining us were Rod and Marsha Schultz. Rod and Marsha are one of the couples that run the campground office at the Tiffin service center in Red Bay, AL.  Rod and Marsha invited Joe and Jan Dabney of Houston, TX to join us.  They have an Allegro Bus made by Tiffin.  A pleasure to meet such nice people and find out they know other Tiffin owners that we too know.  Small world.  The food was great as was the company.  Unfortunately I didn’t not have my camera on the right setting.

It’s back to work tomorrow…getting ready for the Labor Day weekend crowd we are expecting.

Moving on.

Sunday, August 15, 2010 The Black Hills of South Dakota

We are still working at Sheridan Lake Campground near Hill City, SD.  We have 4 weeks left and counting.  This has been a very quiet weekend for us…we only had 12 of our 39 spaces occupied…the other 3 loops were pretty full.  Sunday is always nice because most of the campers are leaving…I think we will only have 3 spaces with campers tonight unless someone else comes in.  The weather turned quite cool yesterday…high was 65 degrees.  It is supposed to start warming today and we should be back to about 80 degrees within a few days.  We had to turn one of our small heaters on early this morning but it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day.  We are working the beach/day use area as we do 5 days a week.  There are a few people fishing across the lake from where I am sitting…that is a free parking area right next to the highway.  This is the view I get from the booth.  Sheridan Lake is 385 acres…this is just a small part.

I really wish I could just pick up my rod and reel and walk the few feet down to the lake but don’t think our employer would like that.  Because of the cool weather we probably will have very little activity…we normally sell around 50 parking passes on a good day…yesterday we sold 4.  I can’t being to tell you how many books we have read in the last few weeks.

Last Tuesday, one of our days off, we drove over to Custer which is less than 15 miles from here.  As previously mentioned, the Sturgis, SD motorcycle rally is in full swing and there are bikers everywhere.  This is downtown Custer which is probably about 80 miles from Sturgis.

Sorry, I was snapping these thru the windshield as we drove thru…I am wondering where this guy put the crutch when he was riding.

We had dinner at the Blue Bell Lodge in Custer State Park.  It was built in the 1920s by an executive with Bell Telephone.  It is a beautiful location.  

Sorry I did not take any pictures of the interior of the restaurant.  The setting was lovely…the food was so-so.  We are having trouble finding really good food in this area…but it is just as well as we don’t have much time to eat out.  Hard to believe I am cooking almost every day.  It can’t last forever.

Moving on.